As service trends in retail and gaming industries go toward cashless payout systems, such as coupons, receipts and/or tickets, hereinafter collectively referred to as “tickets” additional security features will need to be incorporated with the tickets to insure validity of issued credits and prevent counterfeiting.
“TITO” refers to Ticket In, Ticket Out. That is the primary method of payout in most casinos today and especially Indian reservations. It is based on a bar code generated random number that is associated with the “payout”, “credits”, or “cashout” of a machine. The machine is networked to all the cashiers and pay stations to validate and make payment on winnings. After payment the ticket is voided.
Magnetic pattern sensors have been found to be suitable for differentiation of bank note types and patterns printed with magnetic ink. The typical applications include ATMs, cash counters, bill changers, ticket machines, automatic vending machines, card readers, and differentiation of E13B codes on gift certificates. The broad applications of magnetic ink detection includes “credit card readers, cash dispensers, security, access control, phone-card and personnel logging, Standard cassette fittings, record/Playback magnetic heads, Bank Note Verification, Professional Audio, and Film Stripes. By reading the magnetic stripes on credit and debit cards and driver's licenses—plus Magnetic Ink Character Recognition or MICR characters on checks, deposit and withdrawal slips, MICR readers speed transactions, eliminate manual entry errors and reduce fraud.
Financial institutions use MICR check readers and magnetic card readers to optimize interaction with customers and to improve cost efficiencies. Hospitality and Gaming organizations rely on MICR check readers and credit card readers to provide easy connectivity to PC-based applications. Creating a good magnetic ink reader is not without problems, however. The device is required to work with a large variety of bills from crisp new ones to ragged old ones, and it has to be reasonably good at telling real bills from counterfeit notes. In many cases the device also has to be able to sense the denomination of the bill. In order to accomplish the task, dollar bill changers use a variety of technologies. Many of the early bill changers took advantage of the fact that U.S. bills are printed with magnetic ink. By contrast, Euro bills are printed with magnetic material, which needs to be magnetized before sensing.
Magnetic heads (like the ones in a cassette tape recorder) are used to pick up signals from the bills. Areas of the bill would generate signals at a specific frequency and the detection of this frequency would validate the bill. The wave form or pattern is time and amplitude based. Both are dependent on the feed mechanism in relationship to the magnetic ink. Changing the speed of the feed mechanism will result in a waveform change. The various technologies for detecting the magnetic ink include Inductive heads and MR heads. The MR heads has got advanced features over inductive heads like high sensitivity and compact in size and good resolution. The detection of magnetic ink is a growing low-field magnetic sensor application. The use of iron oxide as a pigment in black ink has provided a method of reading and validating currency and other negotiable tickets. Additional magnetic features are being added to currency as PCs and excellent quality color printers have moved counterfeiting from the realm of the skilled engraver. One such application is reading the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition or MICR characters on the bottom of checks.